Reingard and Holzer fought side by side with great tenacity, swinging their newly forged battle axes with a strength they had never known before, sending demons and wolves flying backward and in pieces with every mighty swing of their axes.
They fought with all of their might, determined to send each and every one of the enemy hordes back to the dark halls of the Dark Abyss from whence they came.
Gilric Ellisar, his long, curved blade flashing left and right with incredible speed and precision, was dispatching enemies as quickly as they came, tearing through their ranks at the front of the battle, leaving a wake of death and destruction trailing behind him that was quickly filled with forces from both sides, locked in combat.
Eventually he caught up with the leader of the Wolf Guard who snarled fiercely as he approached, bearing his big yellow fangs threateningly before jumping toward him at breakneck speeds.
Their blades clashed as they met, sending sparks flying in every direction. Their attacks were a flurry of steel and fur, hammering again and again in an endless rhythmic dance.
More than once the wolf’s blade struck home, but Gilric’s armor proved to be the stronger of the two metals and deflected the attacks.
Emboldened by his seeming superiority, the Wolf lunged ferociously at Gilric, but he had been anticipating this moment and side-stepped quickly out of the way before bringing the full might of his sword down on the back of the wolf’s head – severing it completely. It fell to the ground with a sickening thud, rolling several times before coming to a stop, his tongue hanging halfway from his mouth. The leader of the Northern Wolf Guard was dead.
After hours of tireless fighting and heavy casualties, the demon army began to wear thin just as the sky began to dip behind the mountain range to the West. The final remaining enemies were quickly dispatched by the elvish forces, and the ones who had tried to flee were quickly hunted down and slain. When they saw that they had finally triumphed, they all cheered together in victory.
They had suffered great losses, but they had ultimately won the battle.
Gilric, Reingard, and Holzer looked up together towards Draco’s Pass where the last of the sun’s rays was starting to disappear, sending a brilliant array of golden light scattering throughout the painted sky. In the distance they could see the silhouetted outline of the Dwarven army, all holding up their weapons in victory.
“It appears our friends have also been victorious!” said Gilric, a clear expression of relief etched onto his face as he approached Reingard and Holzer who were both covered nearly head to toe in sticky demon blood. He looked to Reingard and Holzer and tilted his head towards the mountains, “Shall we go congratulate them?” he asked with a rare smile, which they both returned in full.
“Aye, we shall!” replied Reingard, clasping hands with the Elven Prince.
And they began their ascent with the remaining Elven forces up the mountain pass to greet their new allies and prepare for their march to Ravenfell’s aid.
Chapter XXIII
Look out!” shouted Rex, as a ten-foot-tall demon came charging over the top of the wall, tearing off the arm of one of his soldiers before lunging at General Owen.
General Owen turned just in time to dodge the attack and quickly decapitated the demon with his two-handed sword, sending it tumbling off the back of the wall and into the spikes below.
“That was too close!” he replied, laughing more out of relief than anything.
They had been fighting constantly for over twelve hours straight. The first of the three defensive walls had been overrun, forcing them to retreat to the second tier, but it too, was quickly becoming overrun.
The men had been fighting tirelessly and valiantly, many refusing to rotate from their shifts or leave to seek medical attention despite their wounds, but the demon army was relentless and greatly outnumbered their own.
It was only a matter of time before they would have to fall back to the third defensive wall, leaving them to defend the final barrier between the increasingly violent enemy and their main forces. It seemed the more they fought on, the more ferocious the enemy became, as if they were in a bloodlust battle rage intent on killing anything and everything that got in their way.
The defenders on the other hand, were growing weaker with every passing hour – they simply couldn’t continue at this pace for much longer, even with the constant rotation every few hours with fresh troops. They just simply didn’t have the numbers, and with each passing hour, they had more and more men killed or forced out of the fight from their wounds.
“Fall back!” yelled Rex, indicating it was time to move out to the third and final barrier.
The men quickly complied, filing out one by one down the stairways to the ground level and moving their way through the maze-like barricades as they had done several hours before when they had been forced to abandon the front line. While the majority of the forces retreated safely to the third barricade, several others stayed back to hold the line and keep the demons from getting through.
Finally, Rex, General Owen, General Ryan, and Orin were all that were left on the middle wall. Seeing that everyone else had safely escaped to the final barricade, they each slowly made their way to the final defensive position, fighting back the demons and undead every step of the way with archers from the wall behind supporting their escape and helping hold back the enemy hordes.
When they reached the wall and got into position, Orin held up his hand with a ball of fire, the signal for the archers to light the barricades.
Immediately, hundreds of archers each dipped their arrows into the oil filled gutter and Orin sent his flame into the pitch, igniting each of their arrows before they sent a volley into the pitch-soaked barricades below.
The entire area ignited into a roaring blaze, catching hundreds of demons and undead afire who had been pursuing Rex and the others through the barriers, sending them flailing around and screaming, trying to escape the inferno. In their frenzy, some of the demons managed to impale themselves on the spikes, causing them to scream even further in anguish, while others simply trampled one another into oblivion. The trap had worked, but in the end, they knew it would only slow them down. The hundreds who died would quickly be replaced by equal numbers as soon as the blaze subsided.
With the pit below afire and preventing any enemies from crossing the gap for the time being, Rex looked over to General Ryan and Orin who both agreed the time had finally come to utilize the elixirs that Orin had prepared.
He began running up and down the lines, telling his men to drink the contents of the little vials, and prepare for their final stand. One by one, the men took out their vials and began downing the clear liquid. The effects would last anywhere between twelve hours and forty-eight hours, depending on the size of the user and how much energy they were using. Given the ferociousness of the fighting thus far, Orin suspected they would be lucky if they got half of that before crashing, but the alternative was for their men to begin falling down exhausted before the fight was over – something that would certainly bring their doom.
Immediately, a surge of energy and strength flowed back into the bodies of the defenders. Their wounds no longer bothered them, their tired limbs no longer ached, and their minds were clear as if they had just woken for the day – they were prepared for the next wave of attacks.
Within minutes, the men had regrouped and prepared to face the onslaught – and it came in full force.
The flames finally subsided, the enemy forces let out a devilish high-pitched howl and charged at the wall full force. They were running so quickly and carelessly that they were climbing over the scorched bodies on the barricades, refusing to wait their turn to fit through the maze, but instead using them as steppingstones to keep from becoming impaled themselves. They were charging with such reckless abandon that they were pushing each other over and impaling the slower ones on the barricades, creating more and more paths across the field.
Orin and the others could see th
is becoming a problem as it allowed the enemy forces to attack them in greater numbers, thereby thinning out their forces on the walls.
General Ryan, thinking quickly, instructed the catapults to fire their remaining cannisters as close as they could to the front of the wall.
“But sir, that would put the men in danger.” objected one of the engineers firing the devices.
“Just do it, soldier!” shouted General Ryan.
The men sprang into action and after making the necessary adjustments, began sending volley after volley of flaming cannisters into the opening between the two walls and a short distance in front of the defenders.
The entire area before the wall erupted in a series of explosions, sending demons flying in every direction, sometimes in unrecognizable pieces.
The defenders behind the wall braced for impact, covering their heads, and hiding behind the crenelations to protect themselves from the flying debris and powerful blasts.
In the span of just a few minutes, over a thousand demons and undead soldiers were obliterated. Not a single soldier had been killed, while only a few had suffered severe burns on their hands or arms from the blaze.
When the smoke cleared, they could see the now pothole ridden field filled with the charred remains of countless enemies. When they had seen the effectiveness of the barrage, the rest of the forces had stopped pouring into the pit, waiting for the rain of death to cease. Now that it was finally over and they could see no indication of any further attacks, they grew emboldened once again and one by one started rushing through the still smoking field, navigating around the flaming pits and scorched bodies.
When the ladders started hitting the wall, the defenders were ready.
Over the course of the next several hours, the defenders held back the enemy waves with surprising efficiency, kicking off the ladders, lopping off their heads and arms and any limbs that they could reach. The stench of demon blood filled the air. The smoke from the still blazing fires blocked the midday sun of the second day, giving the air an almost dusk appearance.
Men and demon screamed alike, fighting viciously for their lives for what felt an eternity. The sun began to set in the distance, and the fighting still raged on, as ferocious as ever.
That’s when they first caught sight of him.
General Krauss came in like a bulldozer, faster than a charging bull, and ten times as strong.
He was glowing an eerie green and seemed to be larger than they remembered, but his evil smirk and his dark features let them know that it indeed was the General.
The archers sent a flurry of arrows flying towards him in an attempt to knock down his charge, but he just waved them off with a flick of his hand, sending them flying back at the men and taking out several of them.
Orin sent a fireball blazing toward him. He simply batted it aside as if it were a firefly, giving it even less thought than he would an annoying insect as it deflected off into the side of the mountain pass, exploding like a bomb and taking out several demons in the process.
Rex and the two generals looked at each other and immediately knew what must be done.
They signaled for the men to fall back into the main forces that were waiting just behind the walls, then followed quickly in pursuit, prepared to make their final stand in their last-ditch effort to keep the enemy forces from breaking through into the valley and spreading out like wildfire. They knew if they got that far, their chances of survival would drop significantly. It would be the end of Ravenfell.
Just as they got off the wall, it exploded with such force that it knocked them all several feet through the air. They landed hard just before their main line of forces, several soldiers running forward to help up their fallen generals and king.
When they got to their feet and turned around to see what had happened, suspecting they already knew the answer, General Krauss was standing in the midst of the rubble, a great cloud of dust still clearing from the air as it settled back into place.
“He’s far more powerful than he was before,” said Orin, seeing the incredible force he had displayed, “He must have been enhanced by his connection with the Defiant One. Now that he’s no longer in the Dark Abyss, their connection appears to be stronger than ever!”
“Great…” replied General Ryan, “so how do we stop him?” he asked.
They each looked to Orin, his face covered in dirt and sweat and his eyes wide.
“We fight together, with everything we’ve got!” he said defiantly.
With that, they each nodded, knowing they were in this together until the end. If they were going to die, at least they would die fighting with their friends and for their people, and they did not plan on going down easy.
General Krauss stepped through the opening, letting the horde of demons and undead flood through the clearing towards the eagerly awaiting army of defenders.
“This is it men! Prepare yourselves!” shouted Rex above the roar of the incoming demons. “This is where we make our final stand. For freedom!” he screamed.
The remaining combined might of Ravenfell and Eldergate cheered with their King and Generals and rushed into the incoming horde, clashing into them with such fury and ferocity that a shockwave seemed to erupt between the two forces.
General Krauss locked eyes with Rex, General Ryan, and Orin, while General Owen fought on with his men around them.
Orin was the first to strike.
He rushed into a flurry of casting, sending a series of powerful attacks at General Krauss with terrifying results. The ground and area around the General exploded with a variety of elemental spells, fire, ice, wind, lightning – it was a relentless attack in a display of power the likes of which the mage had never shown before – a clear indication of their desperate situation.
He jumped into the air and spun his staff around, slamming it to the ground, causing the earth to shake beneath their feet as a large crack began to snake its way towards the General who at this point was obscured behind the smoke left over from his flurry of attacks. Finally, out from the earth shot a geyser of fire that would have melted the flesh off a normal opponent. And it did. Several demons unlucky enough to be caught in the blast fell screaming as the liquid flame contacted their flesh, sending stinking smoke into the air as it melted their skin and bone.
But General Krauss was not a normal opponent.
When the smoke began to dissipate, the figure of the General stood unharmed within the shadows and they could hear a harsh laugh emanating from within. A scorched perimeter surrounded him where the earth had been obliterated, but within it he remained seemingly unaffected by the powerful attacks.
Immediately, Orin was lifted into the air by an invisible force and thrown backwards several feet through the air, landing hard on the ground. His staff slid from his grip and rolled to a stop several feet from where he lay. He didn’t get up.
Enraged, Rex and General Ryan rushed into the fight, charging at General Krauss with renewed ferocity and in synchronized attacks.
The General met their attacks with large twin swords, one in each hand, deflecting wave after wave of their attacks with ease. His movements were impossibly fast and coordinated, despite taking on two opponents of substantial skill and strength simultaneously.
They increased their efforts, and still he gave no way or any indication of faltering. All the while the endless battle continued around them, the screams of demon and men alike falling by the thousands.
In the distance Orin began to finally stir, trying to shake off the ringing and dizziness in his head as blood trickled slowly down his face.
He looked around for his staff, locating it just a few yards away in the midst of a group of soldiers fighting back a couple of demons.
He stumbled slowly towards the group, catching himself from falling a couple of times, completely oblivious to the shouting and screaming of mortal combat surrounding him on all sides.
The staff was suddenly kicked in the scuffle between the soldiers and the
demons, but fortunately it spun closer to him and he reached down and grabbed his staff, gripping it firmly in his hands.
He cleared away the pain with a quick spell and turned just in time to see General Krauss rushing toward him in a full-on sprint, swords held behind him. General Ryan and Rex were sprawled out on the ground behind him, each sporting what looked like pretty serious wounds and neither one seemed to be moving.
Overcome with rage, Orin screamed and released all of his power at once in a desperate attack to avenge his friends, focusing it on General Krauss. He tried to block the attack with his blades, but the impact hit him square in the chest, sending him flying backwards a couple hundred feet through the air, landing hard on the pile of rubble from the crumbled wall.
Relieved his attack had worked, Orin rushed as quickly as he could to check on Rex and General Ryan.
They were both alive and breathing, but they were severely injured. General Ryan had suffered a few cracked ribs and a deep gash in his side, while Rex had a few cuts on his arms and back and was bleeding profusely. They would both need medical attention soon or risk passing out from loss of blood.
He quickly wrapped the wounds as best he could and helped them up, trying to get them out of harm’s way. Several of the men, after seeing what had happened to their King and their General, had formed a protective circle around them, staving off the enemy forces the best they could and providing Orin time to get them to safety.
As they started their retreat, slowly moving down the valley towards the castle, Orin heard the men screaming behind him in horror. He turned just in time to push away Rex and General Ryan before throwing up his staff and casting a defensive barrier around himself.
General Krauss had come back in full force, enraged at having been struck by Orin’s attack. It seemed to have injured him slightly, as he had blood trickling down his forehead and a large scorch mark on his chest that had broken his armor plate at the point of impact.
David Bishop and the Mystic of Creation Page 17